Mrs. Cohen’s Stairway

George Etta Brinkley Cohen climbed these marble stairs to her apartment on the second floor of Cohen Memorial for three years, from the time the building was finished in 1927 until her death in 1930. It is said that her spirit inhabits the structure.

The building first housed the Peabody fine arts department and following that, Vanderbilt art studio classes until the new Bronson Ingram Studio Arts building opened. The construction of an addition and the building’s first renovation in 50 years have enabled the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery, the Department of the History of Art and the Department of Classical Studies to take residence . . . in addition to Mrs. Cohen’s ghost.